California natives in habitat on the wiki

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Sun, 04 Jul 2004 20:43:40 PDT
Dear All,

Triteleia laxa was blooming in the drying grass on my hike last week so I 
added a habitat shot to the wiki. Many of our California bulbs bloom when 
their leaves have withered and often that is not the only thing that has 
dried up.

While I was at it I added some other pictures of geophytes growing in the 
wild that are native to my area that I hadn't gotten around to adding 
earlier. On one hike in May a year ago we saw Calochortus amabilis in 
bloom. I added a close-up of it then, but decided it might be interesting 
for people to see where some of them were growing. And the one picture on 
the rock is not the one in the close-up. It looked a bit challenging to 
reach. On that same road on that same day there was a Dichelostemma 
capitatum in bloom and a Delphinium nudicaule so I added pictures of them. 
Iris purdyi was added earlier. There are also Erythronium californicum, 
Fritillaria affinis, and Scoliopus biglovii in this stretch as well as a 
couple of Smilacina species. Maybe next year we'll hike there when they are 
in bloom.

This past April we were amazed to see a patch of blue high up on the 
coastal road. We are sure this was a stand of Dichelostemma capitatum 
growing on the rocks but there was no way you could get to it to check for 
sure. It was quite amazing. Pictures can be found here and on the 
respective wiki pages.

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

Finally when I looked again at the Brodiaea californica picture I thought I 
could do better so removed it and took a couple of pictures yesterday to 
replace it. You can see how shiny the tepals are.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

There are still California bulbs in bloom here and this evening making a 
sparkling display for the 4th of July were hundreds of tiny little 
Chlorogalum pomeridianum flowers.

Mary Sue
Mary Sue Ittner
California's North Coast
Wet mild winters with occasional frost
Dry mild summers


More information about the pbs mailing list